Fashioning a Fleet of Fast Dreams : Craft: One of the nation’s premier model makers is building a unique collection of all the America’s Cup winners and challengers since the race began in 1851.

Several months ago, Ken Gardiner, a lanky craftsman with perennial sawdust in his hair, walked into a Connecticut maritime gallery in search of boat pictures. But not of just any boats.

Regarded as one of the top boat model makers in the United States, Gardiner, 46, is in the midst of creating a collection ordered by Dennis Conner, America’s best-known sailor, of every America’s Cup challenger and defender since the trophy began in England in 1851.

When completed next June, the set, featuring 57 racing yachts built to a scale of 3/8 inch per foot, will be valued at about $1.2 million and placed for viewing at Conner’s shop and gallery in San Diego. It will cap Gardiner’s 25-year model making career.

“No model maker has ever done the full collection in all the same scale,” said Gardiner, who visited Connecticut’s Mystic Maritime Gallery on a research foray for the Conner project.

“The New York Yacht Club has a collection, but they were made over the years by different model makers,” he said. “But that’s a private club, and the public can’t see it. Dennis is going to have this on display in San Diego so the public can see it.”

To a sailing purist like Conner, the New York collection and another owned by Australian model maker Rollie Tasker are flawed because they lacked consistency of model makers and scale.

“With regard to the scale,” Conner said, “you miss the relative size of the boat. So my inspiration was to use a premier model maker. My dream was to build a complete set of defender and challenger boats by the same model maker, who was the best in the market, to a standard scale and a high standard of excellence.”

Examples of Gardiner’s work are usually found in abundance at Southern California marina offices, boat-building companies and restaurants.

Steve Rock, 45, the manager of Fiddler’s Green Restaurant in San Diego, said: “He’s the only person in the whole world that boat designers trust with their designs. Ken learned how to make models from his dad, and Ken lives and breathes boats.”

Gardiner’s boat models are carved from blocks of Michigan basswood, then sanded and coated with primer and paint at his Newport Beach factory, a workshop and warehouse filled with hundreds of wood and fiberglass hulls and materials wedged into a 1,000-square-foot area.

This world of boats includes a wood-carving room, painting booth, drying room and enough cubbyholes filled with handmade model parts to supply a miniature U.S. Navy.

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It is a labor-intensive job with Gardiner and four employees putting in hundreds of painstaking hours to craft boats that are adorned with hand-laid teak decks, hand-machined screws, masts and winches.

Gardiner boats can sell for as little as $125 for a half-model of a hull to more than $17,000 for a full model. Half-models, preferred by most sailing traditionalists, offer a side profile of a boat’s hull that is literally cut in half lengthwise, and mounted flush to a fine wood base. Full models are complete replicas.

For Gardiner, the trip to Connecticut yielded a treasure trove of information.

He had searched in sailing books, but none revealed enough details about the famous yachts he needed to build, including two, the Columbia and the Shamrock. At Mystic Seaport, he found rare photographs taken about 1899, the year the race was held, showing the Columbia at sail and the Shamrock during deck construction.

The photos gave him what he needed for an accurate model.

“Those two boats are over there,” Gardiner said as he pointed during an interview inside his factory. On the deck of the Columbia, which was no wider than 10 inches, Gardiner had meticulously hand-laid 1/8-inch teak strips, and he readied the Shamrock for an authentic canvas-covered deck.

It is that attention to detail that has model makers like Gardiner in high demand. When customers arrive, they bring photographs, original boat drawings and their wallets.

He then lists every part, detailing, for example, whether a window is flush or recessed, cleats, literally every nut and bolt, even fishing poles--all on a computer spreadsheet that usually goes to 12 pages.

“It’s a bidding list,” he said. “From there we decide on the price and it usually takes from eight to 10 months to complete a full model. But right now I’m swamped, and we have a two-year backlog.”

Prominent model makers are a rare breed who tend to specialize in Eastern Seaboard customers because there are more boats there than on the West Coast, said Scott Chambers, 45, a Seattle model maker and one of Gardiner’s competitors.

By necessity, Chambers said, model makers are part engineer, part artist and part researcher. The ability to hunt for valuable information, “especially while working on full models, is part of the game.”

“Ken and I go at it differently. I specialize in the half model and he does both,” Chambers said.

Said Conner: “Ken is not only a model maker, but he is also a very competent sailor. I’ve raced with Kenny and against him for years. He really is the premier model maker.”

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Though they have bid against each other, the two model craftsmen have never met. Gardiner does not advertise, in contrast to Chambers, who places ads in boating magazines.

“I don’t advertise, and I don’t like galleries,” Gardiner said. “Galleries pay $10,000 and try to sell it for $20,000 when it’s not a $20,000 model.”

His client list includes prominent sailors like Conner and yacht designers, such as German Frers, and captains of industry. For the most part, Gardiner’s business is individual models bought by those who can afford a 120-foot boat and also order its miniature equivalent.

“It’s an ego thing,” Gardiner explained. “They have their boat, and they can’t put their boats in their offices or corporate headquarters. These are men and their water toys.”

Gardiner has molds for more than 3,000 half-models and 160 full models. He has done so many of America’s Cup boats that skippers and designers often buy dozens of the models to give to crew members and sponsors.

“Sometimes we don’t make the boats exactly,” Gardiner admitted with a smile. “We use what I call the ‘Kenny feel,’ to complete the boat because in the America’s Cup they don’t want the (design) secret to come out. They do want me to make the boat, but they don’t want anything that gives away the true design or any innovations.”

One boat, a 120-foot motor sailer, had so much detail that it included fiber optic lights to illuminate the boat’s interior.

“The customer was the head of an oil company who I can’t name. But he was in the middle of a bad divorce,” Gardiner recalled. “When he got it and unwrapped it, the owner slowly broke into a smile. His secretary later told me, ‘You know, he hasn’t smiled in the last year and a half. And, you made him smile.’ ”

That kind of satisfaction motivates Gardiner.

“That’s the biggest thrill, the customer’s reaction,” Gardiner said. “I love it. It’s like winning a sailboat race. When you can see them smile . . . then you know you’ve won. And, I’ve been there when they open the shipping box and they can only say, ‘Wow!’ ”

Profile: Ken Gardiner

Age: 46

Occupation: Boat model maker

Background: Learned craft from his father

Career span: 25 years

Clients: America’s Cup winner Dennis Conner and racing yacht designer German Frers, among others

Current project: Creating collection of all America’s Cup challengers and defenders since race began in 1851; set will feature 57 boats built to 3/8-inch scale. Estimated worth: $1.2 million.

What he charges: $125 for a half-model to $17,000-plus for a full model.

About his clients: “It’s an ego thing. They have their boat, and they can’t put their boats in their offices or corporate headquarters. These are men and their water toys.”

Source: Ken Gardiner Modelmaker Inc.